Dryland Gardening - Ottawa Style

My so-called lawn right now after two months in a level 1 drought

So we have had no significant rain for months. This is atypical for the normal slightly soggy Ottawa. I don't irrigate, partly on principle and partly because in my nearly three acre clearing, it wouldn't be easy. I also don't have a high producing well or the desire to drain it so I rely on rain, the odd watering can filled from rain barrels (or in desperation the well) and mulch.


My pumpkins are me-e-e-e-e-e-e-lting: planted in a hasty bed - sod cut out to form a path then tossed on top of some compost over the middle or bed part of the sod. No weeding, just raking smoothish and then planted with pumpkin seeds. I've had to haul a watering can here over the last few days. 


Mulch


It acts as a barrier between the sun and the soil. This helps maintain soil moisture and prevents weed seeds from breaking dormancy and cover the soil for you in the symbiotic dance of the soil and plant. In other words, bare soil is vulnerable so, given the right conditions, when soil is disturbed, its seed bank will burst into life and cover the cut.


On the left of this photo, grass mulch and on the right, wood mulch path.  It helps that california poppy is also a drought resistant reseeding annual.

Organic mulch will break down over time improving the soil's texture and ability to retain moisture as well as adding food to the soil ecosystem. Organic mulching is like sheet composting so you should be aware that dry matter like wood chips and straw are high in carbon versus grass clippings that are higher in nitrogen(1). Though I've never experienced this, if you heavily mulch with carbon rich stuff, it is possible to suffer nitrogen deficiency so some people suggest amending with a nitrogen rich source such as blood meal (or pee). I've also used well rotted bagged composted as mulch around my heavy feeding plants when in the city with excellent results.


I had some of this so-called black corn plastic (it's supposed to break down - sure) left so I mulched between my tomato rows with grass clippings at the seams. It eliminates weeding isn't pretty. I really need some straw but after reading this, I'm looking for a good source. 

Inorganic mulches such as stone will also help cover the ground though won't break down (fast at any rate) which has a plus of having to renew less often and the negative of not contributing to soil fertility and tilth. I also have been known to use plastic mulches such as clear for soil warming and black for weed exclusion. Both will retain soil moisture but apply carefully by forming shallow indents around your plants and seal the slits with sand to help funnel overhead water to the root zone. Some people put irrigation tubing under the plastic.


Brussel sprouts mulched with leaves and bark. Despite the fact that my broccoli plants have been desiccated this year by earwigs (which hide out under wood), they have left these alone? They don't like to eat in their bedroom?

Plants can also act as living mulch(2). Either by close spacing and successive thinning or interplanting. Low water levels may mean that the mulch plants over competes with your main crop.  In more permanent plantings, living ground covers can protect the soil. If the plant is vigorous enough - like comfrey - it can be used as a chop and drop mulch right there or in another part of the garden.


"What drought?" say large rooted horseradish and asparagus. 

In my country paradise, it is not as easy to come by materials as the city where it was commonly bagged and left on the curb side so I am left to experiment with more ideas. Green manures or cover crops which are often grown to improve the soil such as winter peas, rye and buckwheat can be sown and then cut at a the right stage so that you can plant into them(3). I've always used volunteer 'weeds' as mulch by pulling them young and laying them back on the bed. Only a few of them will reroot - yellow dock tries hard - or seed - purslane - despite being pulled. Works best when done on a dry day.

There is a lot of woody debris lying around so I use variations on hugelkultur especially in paths to act as sponges between beds to absorb and emit water.


Land Contouring


Garden planning is partly about flow of air(4), sun, and water. When it comes to limiting water loss in dry weather, you can change the shape of your land to get water to flow where you want it too. This helps direct excess water away too if required. Terracing is an old technique to limit erosion and water loss on hills. Our clearing is on a slight slope, so I've been digging paths along the contours and then filling them with woody debris to help slow down water. I also plan on putting some storage ponds at the bottoms of the gardens. Though this year, like the natural pools in the woods, they'd be drying out by now.


Raised beds built along contours with woody debris infilling paths. Beans on left and plastic mulched sweet potatoes on right.

I work with a lot of raised beds as most years with normal rain fall and sun, they help the snow melt faster, the ground is quicker to work and the dirt heats up faster meaning better harvests. However, you can invert this and dig little trenches for crops that need more moisture and cooler temps. I normally use this technique with leeks as I expect the trench to naturally hill up as at the sides slide down but it also helps retain moisture.

If you want to prevent the ground from drying out too quickly, a wind break either solid like a fence, temporary like a thick planting of sunflowers or permanent like a hedgerow can help especially if it blocks the prevailing winds. We have a large, outcropping sited more or less on the north side of our property and trees entirely surrounding our clearing so I find that frosts hit just a little later here than the surrounding fields. There is also substantially less biting wind.


Here birch and raspberry are growing on thin soil near an outcropping. You can see that the raspberry canes are drying up and the leaves are dropping from the tree prematurely. 


Water Capture


Nearly empty rain barrels.


Timing your sowing and transplanting so that they correspond with the times of high soil moisture such as after the snow melt or rain (where are you rain?) is much easier and crucial in some areas that get seasonal droughts but when you have to irrigate, think water capture.

Firstly, you can recycle the water you use. Don't throw out your cooking or bath water but rig up a way of sending it to a storage spot or hose. It could be as simple as lugging buckets or as complicated as a series of grey water ponds for filtration. There are often regulations on the use of certain recycled water so read up on what they are for your area.


Here's something I put used water in. Someone left it on the curb side. I also use these large water bottles to make mini greenhouses.

Setting up a series of rain barrels at your downspouts can be an easy way to supplement your water. Your roof type will affect the residue in this water(5) and in urban areas, you may be given dirty looks if you don't cover them because they can be mosquito breeding grounds. P.S. in my urban home, I had a small pond occupied with larvae eating goldfish despite what that pet store person said about goldfish not being interested in invertebrate babies. My fish didn't seem aware of this dietary restriction.

In dry areas, some people would keep their water from being wicked up by the sun as soon as it was sprinkled down by devising slow watering devices such as an olla - essentially a buried, porous ceramic pot. You could be creative and make them out of ceramic pots though I've seen people use pop bottles too.


Plant Selection and Spacing


Blanket flowers is a classic xeriscape perennial. 

The only time the garden bed needs to be constantly moist is if you have a bog garden or if you are trying to germinate seeds; otherwise, it is wise to go awhile between deep waterings to encourage your plants to develop deeper, strong root systems. Letting some plants like pumpkins and tomatoes sprawl allows them to root along stem nodes where they touch the ground.


The peppers are loving this heat. These are mulched as they would start to droop with too much moisture stress.

Spacing them further apart will also for less competition for scarce resources. Also, take advantage of shade. Bet you don't hear that too often in regards to edible gardening? A partly shaded garden will work well for many greens and some root crops(6). You can get shade cloth for obvious reasons or floating row cover which helps hold in some moisture too.

And lastly, go for drought tolerant plants. Of course, you've probably heard of xeriscape gardening which is great for decorative beds. There are edibles that do well in drier conditions too(7) and lastly there are cultivars of beloved favourites that will beat the heat and dry better than there brothers and sisters. I find that indeed, edible golden podded pea, does better in the drought than some others.


I've left the weedy amaranth in the rows as a supply of heat tolerant greens. The earwigs ate the prettier red splashed one that I seeded. Here melons and peppers are thriving.

Now let's all go outside and watch the skies. It's bound to rain one of these days!

Do you know a lot about gardening in drought? Please share your tips.


(1) For more on composting, check out related post: Waste Not, Want Not - the Story of Crumbs - Part II
(2) The above link deals with white clover. The advantage of nitrogen fixers of course is that they make nitrogen available for other plants and aren't heavy feeders themselves so compete less with your crop plant. I've commonly heard of the mint family as being used this way such as mints or oregano. If you have grown mint, you'll understand that how it could be a good ground smother. Other plants work as different nutrient accumulators.
(3) They are commonly incorporated into the soil but I want to take advantage of their mulching capacity.
(4) Because cold air is heavier and sinks into lower spots, this means that you should be careful not to place certain gardens in hollows because they are more likely to experience first and last frosts at the end of the growing season.
(5) See here for a discussion. I haven't had time to look into it with detail though some metal roofs are commonly used for water collection.
(6) Related Post, Vegetables for Shade
(7) Related blog post on Drought Tolerant Edibles Plants for the North

Harvesting Peppers Already Monday

This is what happens when you compensate for having poor growth in your peppers last year, you start them way too early the following year. See my mistake last year was thinking that because I now lived rurally that I should start a few later because frost was likely to last later in spring. Possibly for this reason, or many others, some of my solanaceae failed to thrive as I would like. So this year, I started waaay early. Frost kept coming a bit on the late side too so after transplanting twice and picking off buds more than once, look: peppers in June.


Jalapeños, an UHP (unidentified hot pepper) - top from a mix and a Jimmy Nardello accidentally picked early - bottom, on a bed of kale with peas flanking the side: blonde, golden edible podded and various green shellers. 

My tomatoes, for your information started at the more or less correct time, are showing the first green fruits. Yippy yay! Also, harvesting lots of red currant which turned into a jam, and featured in a cobbler today.



To read more harvests, go to Daphne's Dandelions.

Wee Harvest MondayBroken Camera Edition

Still with the broken (probably unfixable) camera so I'm using my daughter's which would if it could take a closeup but can't. Anyhow, here is a wee bowl of goodies: peas, currants, strawberries, garlic scapes and a cherry on top.


Yesterday I raided the strawberry plants and pea vines then promptly ate them with family so today's harvest is more modest though just as delicious. You'd think with three different locations for fresh peas either edible podded or shelling, I'd have enough but I'm not sure. After all, we're talking peas here: one of the most delightful aspects of spring besides strawberries, rhubarb, asparagus, fresh greens and cherries and so on. However, my children don't see any reason to spare a pea if they see one. They should be eaten right then and there. In fact, you should camp out near the pea vine and scarf them all down. Sure, this is great. There isn't anything more local, in our case organic or delightful right? Except occasionally mom wants to preserve the odd pea for seed starting next year especially those that are particularly prolific and early. BORING.

Strawberries, on the other hand, are free game right? Must plant more.

Harvests and Garden TourBroken Camera Edition

I have been harvesting greens but few roots crops.


Yummy green, gold and pink stuff in bowl

In fact this year the bugs decided that they weren't feeling generous with my seedlings and have mowed down parsnip, marigolds and various goosefoot relatives. Carrots have been shy to germinate too. Still, I can't complain too much as I have been able to eat. As it's been a while since I've posted and we are into our second growing season here, I figured it was time for a garden tour. My camera is still broken and may never be fixed (blame throw-away culture) but my daughter lent me hers. It doesn't take closeups, doesn't like high light and has a smudge across its lens but heck it records images in digital form.

The Greenhouse Gardens



Small greenhouse used for storage now.


The small greenhouse was made (by previous owners) with reclaimed windows that contain lead paint so nothing edible is planted nearby. Instead a fire pit and a few decorative/wild type beds ring it. When we moved in the fall of 2010, it was a tilled, fenced annual vegetable patch.


Designed using the classic island and border structure with a wood chip path.

Many metres away is a bed filled with edibles like good king henry, anise hyssop, rhubarb, catmint, salsify, crosnes, malva and more and more. Mostly perennial and self seeding, but there are some annual planting spots that contain zucchini and random solanums such as tomatillos and ground cherries this year.


I love this combo of salvia, chives and rhubarb.



On the other side of the Greenhouse Gardens, past the fire pit are a series of parallel beds that are being reclaimed from wild self sowers such as poppies and oxeye daisy. Not that those plants don't have a place too. I'm just asking them to share. It also houses my dandelion bed - pictures to come when plants are sizeable.

Orchard Gardens


It's difficult to get a good shot of the orchard garden which contains numerous apple, pear and other fruiting trees.


When we first moved in, the fruit trees were grown alongside huge, rolling squash plants. They had kept the area tilled and watered frequently. The soil was very sandy, lacking organic matter and prone to drying out. To help hold water, I dug in paths across the grade and am in the process of filling them in with wood. I also left a central path, seeding it with grass.


Anchusa is a gorgeous, tall, blue flowering bee plant related to borage. Here seen with walking onions.

To help build organic matter and soil structure, the annual veggies are being replaced with many more perennials and heavy self seeders (though the bugs have been at the seedlings this year). Veggies are still being planted but so are cover crops to be cut and left on the ground to decompose.


You can see a wood debris path extending across the grade here and the quick bed planted with pumpkins in the foreground.

And I'm still expanding here using a simple method of turning over the sod from the path onto the bed. In this one that is planted up with pumpkin seedlings, there is also some unfinished compost. Weeds will grow up of course which will be cut down to keep competition down and the hole thing will be properly mulched in the fall.


Cabbage seedlings lining the main path with golden oregano in the background.

The plan is to dig in a pond sometime over the next couple of years too at the bottom of the orchard gardens where the soil transitions from sandy to clay.

Barn Gardens


Circular garden with plastic mulch for peppers and melons. This one was made by edging and then dumping a mix of soil and manure on top. Voila. Yes, couch grass did reappear but was promptly (important) removed.

These are all brand new, placed in last year 2011 using sheet composting methods. Directly in front of the south facing barn is a circular garden that has been planted in annuals. I'm planning on ringing it in perennials and placing a feature at the centre on each side. Right now, it is ringed in strawberries - yummy - and currently planted with peppers, eggplants, melons, basil and a self seeding insectary mix.


Build by cutting sod short, layering with newspaper (in some spots, ran out) and then mulching heavily with fall leaves.

Next to it is a berry bed with acid loving or at least tolerant bushes including blueberries and lingonberry. Another couple gardens are will be built along side it including a seedling starting bed. Hopefully this fall if my back holds!

Back Rock Garden



Not the best angle here. I'll try to get another one.

Round the back of the house is a hot, south facing field with rock outcropping skimming the surface. I dug down to expose the rock and then build a series of raised beds around it. Essentially I removed the soil as far down as it was loamy good and tossed it onto what ends up being circular beds that more or less follow the topography. These are getting filled with woody debris too to hold in moisture. Last year, they were mulched with plastic or paper to cut back on weeds and then planted up with vigorous vining crops like watermelon and pumpkin. This year, they have legumes, alliums and root crops or they would have root crops if something didn't keep eating them...


One of the rings planted with bush beans (though I have my doubts about one of the varieties that seems to be twining)

The centre of the garden is a perennial patch. And the outer edge will also be ringed with another low growing flower/herb patch though probably not this year. I also want to find a solution to storing water nearby such as a small pond.

Misc


Some plums and an apple that the previous older called Old so that's it name now. Produces nice apples!

Also, on the property is the plum patch and other tree plantings and a magnificent woods mostly of sugar maple on two sides, walnut and tamarack at the front and pine on the flanking the last side.

For more pictures, friend me on Facebook: Ottawa Gardener. I'm always looking for more Ottawa Gardening Buddies.

Camera broken break

So everything tender is planted including sweet potatoes, sundry solanaceae including tomatoes, peppers, and whatnot, beans and corn currently are up and currently being enjoyed by cutworms (must put collars on), all long season brassicas are in their beds and fruits are either flowering or plumping up. However, my camera is kaput and I am going away for a little over a week so I have not been blogging. Hopefully when I return, I will also be able to document all this excitement in living colour.

Much to post about. The success of Hablitzia tamnoides, my acquisition of oca and other rare roots, how to slip sweet potatoes, and more!

Finding Hidden Harvest

I have been searching for these people for a while. Sometimes I would hear rumors about folks interested in better utilizing our fragmented urban orchard but I had not been able to track them down or in any way substantiate their existence until Seedy Saturday 2012. Branches bearing a website enticed people with the simple phrase, “Got fruit, want fruit?” were placed among the vendors. I immediately asked the organizers who they were. An hour or so later, they appeared in front of the Canadian Organic Growers’ booth. At last I had faces and names to attach to the idea.

Meet Katrina Siks, Jason Garlough and friends:

Jason and Katrina are on the left with some friends (who I'm sure will do their share of harvesting) on the right.

What is Hidden Harvest?

Among the parked cars, businesses and homes of Ottawa are a multitude of trees that flower and bear fruit or nuts only to unceremoniously drop to the ground and be raked up for disposal. At the same time, organizations like Just Food are looking for ways to improve the availability of good quality food for everyone in the city including those in need.

Connecting this disconnect, Katrina and Jason are creating a hub where tree owners, volunteer harvesters and community groups like the Ottawa Food Bank can work together to share the bounty.

How was this idea born?

Katrina, a self confessed outdoors type, become inspired to be involved in community forests while listening to Merrickville's Diana Beresford-Kroger talk about the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, a non-profit organization that collects and archives native tree genetics from the wild. Diana wishes to conserve the genetic diversity of rare trees and plants including those that give medicine and food.

Jason was born on a farm where trees provided fodder, fuel, protection and food. He was puzzled when he arrived in Ottawa to discover that many urban folk saw trees – especially those that bear fruit – as a nuisance. After all, innovators are coming up with creative ideas to incorporate more food production into the city such as proposals to build multistoried, vertical green houses. They’re modeling the tree, he pointed out, which not only gives you food but is attractive, cleans the air, moderates climate, and requires minimal care.

They met at a Wild Edibles Course run by the knowledgeable Martha Webber. Though they enjoyed the trips out of the city to collect wild foods, it was even more enjoyable to collect grapes at the allotment gardens and to pick mushrooms from alongside the bike path. Gathering apples from old trees to make into cider, including one near the Canada Revenue Agency, got them thinking about all the other underused fruit and nut trees in Ottawa.

The idea of an Ottawa based project like Not Far From the Tree Toronto had been bubbling for some time. It just needed some people with the time and energy to do the organizing. What better time then when the city was facing the loss of up to 25% of its tree cover to the Emerald Ash Borer. Could what replaced these old trees help to feed the city instead of merely shade it? Before embarking on such an investment, a structure needed to be in place to care for the trees.

How does it work?

Through their website, tree owners, organizations, business and other interested parties can post about their needs and wants. “I have an apple tree.” “We’d like to host a harvest event” “Me too!” They will help connect together the right people and provide trailers, pickers, tools and training. The harvest will be weighed and sorted with 25% going to the owner, 25% to the volunteers, 25% to the nearest in-need agency and the remaining 25% making it back to Hidden Harvest for processing to help raise funds for the organization. 

This year, they are looking for lead harvesters to coordinate harvest events along with tree owners(s) and other volunteers in 3-4 neighbourhoods in Ottawa to start off. The locations will largely be selected based on volunteer support. 

Don’t have a tree? No problem as they will be researching tried and true cultivars to sell in the Ottawa area to be available sometimes this summer.

Tell me about the award from Awesome Ottawa.

It’s hard to explain what the Awesome grants are without resorting to the word awesome as the common thread for these one-time 1000 dollar grants. With this extra cash, Katrina and Jason plan on buying some bike trailers to help tote around their tools and harvest.

So when does it start?

The city of Ottawa has expressed their support and provided them with an inventory of 4000 known edible fruit and nut trees growing on city land including various apples, serviceberry, cherries, gingko – yes the smelly ones, Turkish hazel and more. The first harvest event is planned to collect serviceberries in June.

If you want to help, go to the Hidden Harvest Ottawa to register your trees, talents, community organization or interest and stay tuned for more details. You can also like them on Facebook.

Last Frost Date Watch and Planting Out

Plant us! Plant us! Tomatoes and other solanaceae kin waiting for a place in the ground. 

You may have read that last frost for Ottawa is May 6th but the vast majority of folks don't put out tender plants until near at the end of May. I have to assume that 05/06 date comes from actual data and some years it is true. However, as the weather has demonstrated spring is not always straight-forward.

Last Frost Date: is the magic day when statistically the likelihood of a frost killing off your tomato plants is lower. It is also the pivot point where you can switch from sowing lettuce and start sowing pumpkins too. However, according to the farmer's almanac, the average date of last frost is the date when there is the likelihood of frost drops to 50%. Not very comforting if you ask me. Waiting a week or so, lowers the possibility further hence the reliance on the May two-four weekend as a planting out date. Of course, that doesn't mean your plants won't get singed if you wait diligently for that date either.


Earlier in the year, potting up tomato seedlings. 

Heavy and Light Frosts: The average last frost date refers to light frosts with temperatures between -2C and 0C. I do not plant out tender starts like tomatoes and peppers until after May 14th assuming that the weather seems to have settled into a pattern of lows above 4C* at night for the next two weeks. Even so, I have row covers waiting to put over plants should the weather suddenly change.

But there are another set of bookends for the season and these are the average dates of moderate frosts which are in the range of -4C to -2C. I wait until after these before planting out anything in the spring not protected by a cold frame or other season extension device. Just the other week, we had temperatures in this range (I'm sure you remember) and I was hastily blanketing four inch high peas with a leaves and overturning pots on shoots of some perennial herbs that came up. It might have been unnecessary but gosh darn it, -12C with the windchill in late April? Come on! Below these temperatures is severe or killing frost that at this time of year can damage plants and burn buds.


Oddly angled picture of brussel sprout starts planted in mini-climate modifiers / cutworm collars, i.e. bottomless cups.

So outdoor planting** and growing season for me goes from moderate frost to moderate frost which (and I'm guestimating here) seems to run sometime mid-April to sometime near the end of October but yearly variations are many!  This year, I planted peas out in March as the snow left us early bringing me to the next subject.

Soil temperatures: Just as important as the air temperature, the soil temperature will help determine whether your seed will happily germinate or sit and sulk or even worse rot. Now some plants require a period of cold to germinate (see stratification - nice article) or at least aren't harmed by it. I have always gotten away with planting my tender starts, seeds and so on as soon, as the air temperature allowed because I have very lightly textured soil - read sand trap - that warms up early in the spring. If you have heavy clay, there might be a lag time between when the air is ready and when the soil is friendly. This has lead to some discordance with gardening friends as I plant peas as soon as the snow melts whereas they wait a little longer telling me if they did that, the peas would rot. The usual solution is to wait until the ground is ready to be worked which just means isn't too wet. Try the squeeze test to find out but remember your soil type will also affect the results with clay soil more likely to hold together in a ball.


Plums in flower.

But back to heat: I've read all sorts of interesting recommendations such as 'if you can can sit nude comfortably on the ground' then it's time to start xyz. I rarely put my butt on the garden bed to test but soil temperature is one of my big considerations when I plant out heat lovers like sweet potatoes and melons. In fact, soil warming tricks aside, they recommend putting out sweet potato slips a few weeks after last frost. You can use a thermometer, but I normally just lay my nude hand on it.

Some of those little edible darlings won't crack a seed shell unless they have been bathed in the sunny warmth of 20C or more whereas others like the mustards pop out of the ground at the mere hint of a warm day in my experience. So if the seed package says plant when the soil has warmed, do so. The method upon which you determine soil warmth is up to you.


Sweet potato slips rooting in water.

Special considerations: Even if the air is fair and the soil is a weedy mess of germination, you may want to take into account the microclimate around your yard. Cold air will roll down into little dips around your yard and the north side of the house will remain cooler and shadier. Likewise, raised beds will warm quicker in the spring. Use all these variations to your advantage by matching them with plants that like their special characteristics such as bolting greens in cooler corners and peppers in hot spots.

The size of the seedling is important too. You may be itching to get some overgrown starts that are attempting to climb out of their pots into the ground sooner rather than later. Depending on the weather, you might test your luck or you may just need to pot up (transplant into a bigger pot). However, the opposite is true too. Very small transplants sometimes do not do well when moved from their well tended indoor trays to the big bad world outside. Wait until they are husky seedlings that are not root bound and before they prematurely flower (unless of course that was your sneaky plan - more on that some other time).

Watching the Weather: When the wondrous date of tomato planting approaches, keep your eyes on the skies. If the longterm forecast seems promising, see if it is because of the direction of the wind or cloud cover. If Eastern Ontario is basking in a persistent southern wind perhaps all will be well but if there are some temperatures in the near future hovering around 4C on cloudy nights, then you might want to hold off for a couple more days. If the cloud cover fails to materialize then clear skies can drop the temperature significantly meaning a frost.

Back to rain: The most kind days to plant out starts have mist, light rain or at least cloud cover. Pouring (not torrential) rain would probably work too but be less pleasant for you. If it is going to be glaring bright sun over the next few days after planting, be sure to stand guard with your watering can. Oh and I hope you hardened off*** everything first too.


Peas after surviving a night with a windchill of -12C. 

So I usually wait until the air and soil are at the right temperature (more or less), the future looks promising and rain is in the air. Yes, it is a lot to keep track of but that's half the fun of gardening isn't it?

* Why 4C: I read somewhere that the temperature is measured at around 4feet from ground level and that at ground level, the temperature could drop as much as 1C per foot so that light frosts are possible when temperatures are at 4C or below. That's my excuse anyhow. That and I figure it gives me a bit of a buffer in case the predictors are having an off day. However, I have friends the claim that there tender plants are fine at temps as low as 2C. Of course, it will also depend on whether there is a brisk wind mixing the air, soil temperature, humidity and so on.

** Season extension planting lasts longer, often right into December and starts up again in earnest in March. So if I am harvesting from a polytunnel or cold frame, there are usually only a little over two months that I can't get stuff from the ground most years.

*** Hardening off is the gradual exposure of your indoor seedlings to wind and full sun. It is best down gradually over a week or more before planting out. Cloudy days or a spot in dappled shade is a great place to start.